8.21.2009

Fab Foliage Friday

Ahhhh! Now I'm feeling cooler. Nothing like the sight of an umbrella pine (Sciadopitys verticillata) no matter what the time of year, to remind me of the beauty and value of dark green backgrounds, against which are highlighted colorful blooms and the shapes of other foliar delights. Umbrella pines are easily among the very finest of needled evergreens, Their needles-which look like two side-by-side needles fused together--also have a specatacular dark green sheen that looks stellar from January to December, (hough the straight species often gets a bit bronzey in the depths of winter). And finally, those fat, fleshy needles are arranged in cool-looking whorls along the branches, crowning the tip of every branch with regal splendor. Though they are reputed to be very slow growing, mine are chugging right along and often put on aabout a foot a year.

Just a Thought...

Hot Pots and Way Cool Containers

Bio

Blogging about gardens, travel, and the cosmos. Basically,I'm a home gardener who's gone round the bend. I became interested in plants more than 20 years ago, during extended travels in tropical South America and Southeast Asia. Some of the tropical plants seen during those journeys, along with hundreds of other plants from all parts of the world, now grow in my ever-expanding garden. I’m a former newspaper photographer, travel writer and was managing editor at Fine Gardening magazine. I now design, write about, and photograph gardens. I give lectures about them too.